The development of the virtual electronic library and the resulting shift
in emphasis from ownership to access raise questions about the
responsibility for local collection development. However, access depends
on ownership; a network does not create new resources, it facilitates
the sharing of existing resources. This sharing has resulted in
burdensome levels of interlibrary loan activity. In addition to the
financial costs that result from this activity, convenience costs to local
users at the lending library and increased preservation costs must be
considered. Finally, research libraries will not only be measured by
ownership statistics but by access criteria as well, and they will also
have to deal with the politics of virtual libraries and networking.

Issue Date:

1991

Publisher:

Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Citation Info:

In B. Sutton and C.H. Davis, eds. 1991. Networks, open access, and virtual libraries : implications for the research library. Papers presented at the 1991 Clinic on Library Applications of Data Processing. Urbana, Il: Graduate School of Library and Information Science: 123-127.